Sad Sort Of Clanging
by Eavis
Summary: This was supposed to have a lot more Derek and Stiles interaction and actually include what happened that full moon but then Boyd snuck in because he's secretly a ninja and so did Erica and Allison and all of a sudden it was full of them and also Stilinski feels. Because it's the Stilinskis so who needs a legit reason? 3rd in my It's A Pack Thing series.


Stiles talks to Scott the next day (and no, his going to bed before one in the morning the night before has nothing to do with Derek's threat, thankyouverymuch). He pulls his friend's attention from watching Allison like a creepy stalker, which feat he accomplishes by taking a page out of Derek's book and shoving Scott into a locker (even if it doesn't look nearly as impressive as when Derek does it, because a. Scott's a werewolf and b. Stiles _isn't_). And once his friend is looking at him with shocked, wounded eyes, he proceeds to explain, in small words with many graphically morbid examples, how very bad it will be for Scott, Allison, himself, and everyone else if Scott doesn't go with Derek on Friday afternoon. Scott whines and makes excuses, but in the end he sulkily agrees and goes off to sit behind Allison in Chemistry and hope she needs a pen.

That taken care of, Stiles goes to English class, turns in an essay which details the leisure time activities of Kelpies, hippogriffs, and redcaps, which he figures isn't too far from the assigned topic which was "The Daily Life of a Normal Teenager", and sits through Mrs. Johnston's lecture about conjunctions. He already did the reading and the worksheets she's going to assign so he feels pretty justified in spending the time drawing sketches of Ironman mixed with The Flash mixed with wolves just because he can.

He notices that while all of the popular girls are paying him absolutely zero attention, as per _always_, the girl sitting to his left, Erica, he thinks, is watching him draw. He flushes and hurriedly jots down whatever Mrs. Johnston is saying about coordinating versus subordinating conjunctions. A couple minutes later, under cover of picking up a pen, Erica drops a note beside Stiles' desk.

He unfolds it and reads, _"Is the wolf supposed to be Wolverine? Because it's way too canine-like even though it's an awesome looking normal wolf."_

Stiles snorts at that, a bit, because the wolf looks Derek except it's Derek as Stiles imagines he would look in full-alpha form and there's nothing 'normal' about that. Then he looks at Erica and mouths, "Marvel or DC?" and she whispers, "Marvel", then hesitates before adding, "Black Widow."

And Stiles remembers hearing, a long time ago, about Erica Reyes and how she'd been diagnosed with epilepsy, but at the time his mom had been dying and he doesn't remember much from that time besides the long hours at the hospital, alternating between staring at the figure lying on the bed, hooked up to so many machines she seemed more alien than theirs, and raging at the doctors, at his dad, even at his mom for not waking up and telling him it had all been a bad dream.

He looks at Erica again (Mrs. Johnston has moved on to correlative conjunctions) and seeing her hunched in her desk in a grey hoodie and threadbare sweats and tentative smile, he remembers something else; two of the ladies from his neighborhood gossiping as they walked their little yappy dogs, talking about poor Erica Reyes and what a pity it was about her mother and her useless bum of a father and he smiles back at Erica and whispers, "I bet you're just as awesome," and even though it kinda sounds like a bad, super-geeky pick up line, her face brightens and her smile turns real and heart-wrenchingly _grateful_ even as she flushes and turns away.

After class they both have a free period, so they talk The Wasp vs. Tempest and whether Captain America 2 is going to have Bucky as the Winter Soldier and if Widow and the Cap are going to hook up and Stiles almost forgets to pick up the homework packet because Erica is _interesting_ and she makes these sly little digs with a little smirk playing around her lips and it's so unexpected because she looks like such a fragile person but she really, really isn't. And just before he has to go to history (AP, Ancient Civilizations) she looks at him and says, "Thank you." He almost asks what for, they were just talking about comics, but she must see he's confused and goes on, "For looking at me like a person, not a case or a condition."

And then she leaves, shoulders hunching and bookbag pulled close almost protectively and Stiles realizes how good she is at becoming invisible and he surges forward, all flailing arms and hasty apologies and gets her cell phone number before she can vanish entirely.

Later, after school, Scott is (predictably) in detention for watching Allison instead of his lab experiment, which blew up and coated his partner (Danny) in some unidentifiable chemical substance, so Stiles is waiting for him to get out so he can take him home. And he sees Allison come out of the school and sit down on the front steps, probably waiting for her dad. And he thinks he should really go talk to her about Scott, but then Erica comes out and Stiles gets, like, _the_ best idea of the century.

Stiles goes and sits down by Allison, aiming for casual but probably coming off more awkward I-don't-really-know-what-I'm-doing-right-now. "Hey, Allison."

She eyes him. "If you're here to talk about Scott, Stiles, I don't want to hear it."

He scoffs, hand-waving as if the very notion had never occurred to him. "Phsht. Me? Nah. I just wanted to introduce you to someone." He turns and calls, "Hey, Erica!" and waves her over.

She glances from him to Allison and a suspicious expression crosses her face, but she comes over, slowly.

Stiles says, "Allison, meet Erica, my new best friend because when I say Shadowcat she comes back with Kitty Pryde. Erica, this is Allison, who is basically Hawkeye except without the purple and black spandex."

Erica and Allison look at each other for a minute like two wary kittens, then Allison smiles, dimples in full force, and Erica smiles back and asks, "You really know how to shoot a bow?"

Allison pulls out the mini crossbow from her bag and Stiles just has time to be relieved it's empty before she pulls out a bolt, loads it, and shoots the knot on a tree twenty feet away with scary precision.

Erica grins. "How far can it shoot and still be accurate?"

"This one? Up to 20 yards. My compound can do 50 yards and still be accurate, and so can my recurve. This one is one of my favorites, though, because I can carry it with me most places."

The other girl whistles appreciatively and then Allison asks which superhero is Erica's favorite because she's at least seen most of the movies and neither of them notice when Stiles goes into the school. He has no intention of letting Scott come bursting out and make everything awkward when the girls are just starting to get to know one another.

After dropping Scott off at his house, Stiles goes to the hospital. Mrs. McCall smiles at him sympathetically and tells him "No change".

He goes to look in Lydia's window anyway, and after fifteen minutes of staring at her immobile body, he resolves to ask Derek if there's anything he can do for her – even though Peter was the one who bit her, Stiles has read that Alphas are sometimes able to heal their pack members, so maybe since Derek took over the alpha-ship he can do something for Lydia.

He texts Derek that night, but doesn't get a reply until he is on his way to school the next morning. It just says _I told you not to stay up all night_. Stiles huffs, because 2:30 is totally not staying up all night, and he wanted to at least do some research on Alpha healing before he even asked if Derek could do anything.

But during his first class he gets another text saying that Derek thinks he might have an idea about what is happening to Lydia.

Stiles texts back, _which is…? _ But Derek doesn't answer.

At lunch that day Erica and Allison sit together, and since Lydia isn't there to look down her perfect little nose and tell everyone else where to sit, and Jackson hasn't been to school since the formal, the popular crowd ends up sitting with Allison and Erica.

Stiles isn't sure where he fit in, because he isn't exactly Tony Stark here, but Scott isn't in the caf, so when Erica and Allison wave him over, he goes.

Later, as Carina and Lauren from Chemistry discuss the latest hottest tv star with Allison and Erica, Stiles sees Scott come in. He catches Scott's eye and whispers, because he knows Scott can hear him, "Don't you dare try and sit with Allison," which admonition has no effect whatsoever, and then Allison catches Scott's eye and glares.

Scott slinks away to sit at another table, looking like a puppy that just got scolded and smacked for trying to steal a shoe. (And no, the dog jokes will never not be funny, no matter how long Scott is a werewolf.)

After lunch is over and Stiles is stealing all the unopened pudding cups (benefits of hanging out with health conscious people, all right?) he notices Scott talking to another dude at the table with him – a really, like, seriously at least Dean Winchester if not Sam sized guy who Stiles thinks is related to Mr. Milton, the man who owns the town skating rink.

When he asks Scott about the guy at lacrosse practice, he just shrugs and says, "He just looked kinda lonely, y'know? And I couldn't sit with you since you were sitting with Allison, and she was glaring at me, so I talked to Boyd. He's pretty cool, actually. Works at his dad's ice rink. He said maybe sometime he could sneak me and Allison in after hours." Scott stopped and his face fell. "If Allison will ever look at me again."

Stiles bumps his friend's shoulder comfortingly. "Hey, you never know, man. I think once she has some time to think about it and think about you still being you, except for, you know, your little furry problem, she'll calm down. She might even stop glaring at you in a week or a year or something."

Scott shoves his friend. "Jerk."

"You know you love me." Stiles leans in, fluttering his eyelashes.

Scott pushes him away again, but he's smiling, at least. "Come on, dude. Let's go. My mom's working the late shift tonight so we can eat cookies and play World of Warcraft.

Later, after the cookies have been devoured during their hour-long session of WoW, Stiles pulls out his phone to check after an intense mission and then blinks at the message on the screen. He stands up and stretches elaborately. "Well, I'd better get home. My dad's off tonight, for a change, so I've gotta get dinner ready. See you tomorrow, man. Don't forget about your homework for English. I know you haven't done those review sheets yet."

Scott pouts, because he's Scott, but Stiles knows if he can keep not-moping about Allison 24/7 he'll have it done and done well in a couple hours. Despite his hopelessness in identifying symbolism and key themes in literature, Scott is actually really good at grammar.

Stiles gives Scott a man-hug before he leaves, because he read somewhere that wolves are very tactile creatures and that probably goes for werewolves too and also just because Stilinskis give excellent hugs.

And now that he thinks about it, maybe even Derek's preferred method of conversation/interrogation – slamming people into vertical surfaces – is a form of contact, however brief and violent and unwanted.

He waves a cheerful goodbye to Scott from his jeep and heads home. His dad's cruiser is in the driveway when he pulls up. He swings out of his jeep but doesn't bother locking it – no one in his neighborhood is going to risk carjacking the Sheriff's kid's car – and heads straight for the kitchen, mind already on what to fix for dinner.

"Hey, Dad!" he calls, moving to the freezer. After scanning the shelves a minute, he pulls out some fish.

His dad appears in the doorway and looks hopefully to see what Stiles is pulling out, like the flounder will magically change to fish sticks if he wishes hard enough. "What's for dinner?"

"Fish, red potatoes, whole wheat rolls, and salad. And don't even think about sneaking French dressing. Olive oil and vinegar or nothing."

His dad just laughs and starts to set the table. "You'll be happy to hear I had a salad for lunch today instead of a cheeseburger."

Stiles looks over from scrubbing the potatoes to ask suspiciously, "Salad and what?"

He puts on an offended look. "That hurts, Stiles. I am the healthiest person in the station."

"Not by choice," Stiles retorts dryly. "Come on, dad. 'Fess up."

"Well…Jo at the diner might have accidently mixed up my order and given me a side of fries which I felt it would be rude not to eat."

"Dad." Stiles looks exasperated, fond and anxious all at the same time, and John Stilinski sighs. "I know, Stiles. It really was only a small side and I didn't even finish them before I got a call and had to go out again."

Stiles stays quiet, chopping the potatoes and dumping them into the salted water, but his entire frame still radiates disapproval.

"Hey." His dad steps up next to him. "Kiddo, I'm all right."

Stiles whirl, just dropping the point of the knife in time. "Maybe for now, dad, but what about in a year? What about in six months? You know what the doctor said about your arteries. Dad. _P__lease_."

The words left unsaid cloud the kitchen like smog and make it hard to breathe. _Please, I can't lose you too._

Then Stiles turns away, viciously swiping the last of the potatoes into the water and too-carefully sets the pot on the stove, turning the burner to high.

Before he can start squeezing lemons for the fish sauce his dad pulls him into a hug. "I know, kiddo. I'll be more careful, all right?"

Stiles holds himself stiffly for a brief moment before giving in and relaxing into the hug. "I love you, dad."

"Love you too, Stiles." His dad releases him with a quick slap on the back. "Now, what else can I –"

"Nope. No more helping after the table is set. You know that, dad. Now get out of my kitchen so I can finish making your dinner."

With a quick chuckle, his dad scrubs a hand over Stiles' buzz and leaves him to it.

Stiles finishes squeezing the lemons, mixes the juice with a stick of melted butter, checks on the potatoes, and is starting on the salad when he gets a text from Scott. _Hey man - ok if I eat w/ you tonight? We seriously have like no food here. Also can Boyd come? Pls? Srsly starving here._

Stiles huffs a laugh. Scott does this sometimes, usually when he knows Stiles is making actual food. Boyd is a surprise, but there should be enough potatoes and he can pull out a couple more fillets and more salad is always easy. He just hopes Derek doesn't decide to show up and demand dinner. He's seen how much Scott eats since the bite and his pantry can't take two werewolves on such short notice.

He lays out the fish on a baking sheet and spreads the lemon and butter sauce over them before popping them in the oven. He finishes chopping a mix of romaine and iceberg lettuce for the salad and slices some tomatoes and lots of cucumbers to go on top.

"Dad?" He steps into the office, where his dad is filling out paperwork.

"Hmm?"

"Scott's coming over for dinner and he's bringing a friend from school."

John raises an eyebrow. "You want me to come add two more places at the table or do you want to do it yourself, master of the kitchen?"

He grins. "I got this, old man. Just wanted to let you know so you wouldn't shoot anybody at the dinner table."

His dad just laughs and Stiles goes back to the kitchen. He checks the potatoes and hastily pours off the water. A text from an unfamiliar number pops up. _This is Boyd. Scott said it was okay for us to come? Anything we can bring?"_

Stiles would have known it was Boyd even if it didn't have his name. It would never occur to Scott to ask if he could bring anything. He thinks for a minute before sending back, _Some whole wheat rolls would be great, thx. Make scott pay for them. _

The salad and potatoes are done and on the table by the time Scott and Boyd arrive with the rolls. Scott barrels into the kitchen, already headed for the dining room. "Smells great, dude, hi Sheriff! When are we eating, Stiles? Are those cucumbers?"

Boyd follows more slowly, awkwardly holding the bag of rolls. "Hey. Um – sorry about just crashing your dinner – Scott invited me over to play some Warcraft and then he said you wouldn't mind if we came over here for dinner since his mom hadn't gotten to the grocery store this week – um – is this okay?" Boyd is shifting from foot to foot, looking more nervous than any guy that big had a right to look.

Stiles says easily, "Oh, yeah, totally, man. Scott comes over all the time and I made extra anyway, so it's really a good thing you came – I won't have as much to put away afterwards." He steps forward to take the rolls. "Hey, can you grab the salt and pepper and butter and take them in to the table? I'm just gonna stick these in the oven for a couple minutes and then pull the fish out and we'll eat."

A though strikes him as he wraps the rolls in foil and puts them in the oven on the bottom rack and when Boyd comes back in he asks, "I forgot to ask earlier – is there anything you're allergic to?"

Boyd grins, teeth white and even in his dark face. "Just raspberries."

Stiles blinks. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. 'S the weirdest thing. I get hives all over, but that's the only thing I can't eat."

"Huh. Well, this dinner is 147% raspberry free, scout's honor." He holds up two fingers in a Boy Scout's salute.

"You were a scout?"

Stiles grins, pulling the fish out of the oven. "Nah. I just couldn't pull off those shorts, man."

He cocks his head, listening to something in the other room, then calls, "Scott, if you are eating all the cukes before I get some I will hurt you."

There's a guilty silence and then an innocent, "Man, I would never do something like that!"

"I just bet you wouldn't," Stiles mutters, but he grins at Boyd. "I love Scott like a brother but we _have_ fought multiple times over the last slice of cucumber."

Boyd chuckles. "My cousin and I used to fight over the last artichoke heart – didn't care about the rest of the artichokes – just the hearts. Sometimes we'd start out arm wrestling for it and end up full-out wrestling."

Stiles makes a face. "Well, the next time we have artichokes you can eat my artichoke hearts. I can't get over the fact that the innocent looking little fuzzy things will totally kill you given half a chance." He's shifted the fish from the pan to a platter and motions Boyd to go ahead of him into the dining room. Scott and the sheriff are already seated and once John says a quick grace they all dig in.

It should be an awkward meal, considering Boyd only just met all three of them today, but then the Sheriff asks if Boyd plays lacrosse and he says no, he's never really been into it and he wishes BHHS had a football team because he doesn't see what's so great about lacrosse anyway and then Stiles and Scott spend the rest of the meal trying to convince Boyd to try out for the team because, as Scott puts it, "Anyone your size could kick some serious butt. Um. Tail. All over the field."

Once dinner is over Boyd tries to help clean up and gets half the table cleared before Stiles chases him off with a towel because Boyd is secretly a really, really, _really_ big ninja with awesome ninja table-clearing-powers-of-doom. Stiles tells Boyd this after he's chased him into the living room where Scott and the Sheriff are watching Doctor Who and Boyd just laughs but Scott nods agreement. "He was a total beast at Warcraft – we'd be on the same mission and then all of a sudden he'd be done and I'd just have started. Ninja is the most logical explanation."

"Well, I try to be open minded," Stiles' dad laughs, and Scott and Stiles share a look because Stiles hates, _hates_ lying to his dad and he knows Scott hates lying to his mom and someday they need to tell them about the whole 'oh hey so your son and your son's best friend is a werewolf' thing. And open-mindedness about that would really be freaking fantastic.

Then Stiles goes back into the kitchen, because he needs to clean up and he really does enjoy doing it by himself. There's something nice about being the only one in the kitchen working, free to hum or sing and rock out to whatever music is playing on the soundtrack in his head. And there's something soothing and relaxing and _normal_ about simply being responsible for getting all the counters clean instead of having someone's life in his hands, and something peaceful about being elbows deep in suds and getting each dish as clean as it possibly can be. They don't have a dishwasher – his mom had hated them, said they were loud and disruptive and an excuse to be lazy and they never actually get the dishes _clean_, anyway. She used to sing as she washed dishes, and blow soap bubbles out of the dispenser that Stiles would try to pop before she could.

Stiles starts and realizes Scott is standing in the doorway and the plate he just finished washing is dripping all over the floor.

He hastily puts it in the drainer, aware of Scott's eyes on him. "You okay, Stiles?"

He gives a smile that's only a little forced. "Yeah. Just. You know. Stuff. You looking for the ice cream?"

Scott gives him a look that says he knows and understands what Stiles isn't saying but because he is an awesome friend he drops it and says, "Yeah – we've gotta have something, man. It's _that scene_ again. I swear, I don't understand how people can watch this sh- stuff. Watch this stuff. Without ice cream, because it is killing me, dude."

Stiles hides – or rather, fails to hide - a grin at the near curse, and just says, "I'm not coming in there until you're on series 5 and even then I'm going to need some serious ice cream. Are we sure Moffat isn't some kind of trickster? Like a Kobalos, for instance? Because he seems to enjoy people's pain an awful lot."

Scott, who hasn't spent the past three months furiously researching the supernatural, just hums agreeably as he pulls the ice cream out of the freezer.

Stiles huffs a quiet laugh and reminds him, "Dad has to have sherbet. And we don't have any Rocky Road left."

Scott looks up, and if he isn't actually horrified he's doing a great job faking it. "No Rocky Road?! How could you let your freezer ever be empty of something as decadent as Rocky Road?"

Stiles raises an eyebrow. "Breaking out the SAT words, huh? And for your information, the lack of Rocky Road is your fault. You're just lucky there's any ice cream left at all after your rampage on Friday."

"There was hardly any left then either!" Scott protests, and Stiles thinks about reminding him that there was hardly any left _then_ because Scott had eaten almost the entire carton after the "I can't even be friends with you right now" speech from Allison, but decides he'll repay Scott's earlier change of subject with letting the matter drop into the depths of their bro-ship. He just shakes his head and once the kitchen is clean he grabs a bowl of sherbet (solidarity and all that) for himself and drops to sit on the floor between Scott and Boyd's legs. Scott shifts a little closer until his leg is pressed against Stiles' right side and Stiles grins to himself because heck yeah he was right about wolves and werewolves sharing the whole liking/needing touch thing. Stiles and his research for the win.

* * *

Continuity notes, for any one who cares.  
I know in the last shot of the 1st season Allison and Scott are on the roof together, which implies she's forgiven him, but for this series I'm pretending that last shot is at least a week or so down the road, m'kay? Also I am aware Boyd's name is actually Vernon Milton Boyd IV, which is a fantastic name and all, but I can_not_ bring myself to call him Vernon, so it's staying Boyd. I _think_ that's all. If you spot anything else canon or grammar or anything that I missed, please let me know. Also the Kobalos is actually a thing - look it up on wikipedia if you're interested. :)


End file.
